“Not even capable of defeating Ukraine” – Orbán questions Russia’s ability to attack NATO

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has questioned Russia’s ability to attack NATO countries because it “is not even capable of defeating Ukraine,” he said in an interview with French television channel LCI on Sunday, the 8th of June, according to The Kyiv Independent.
“The Russians are too weak for that,” Orbán said. “They are not even capable of defeating Ukraine, so they are not capable of actually attacking NATO.”
More than three years after the start of the war, Russia has failed to achieve its war goals set out in the 2022 peace proposal. Although Russian forces have intensified their offensive, recently advancing in Sumy and approaching Dnipropetrovsk.
For years, Russian propaganda has insisted that NATO and its expansion pose a threat to Moscow. The Kremlin also claims that NATO expansion and Ukraine’s hopes of joining NATO triggered the war, even though Ukraine had little chance or interest in joining in 2014, when Russia seized Crimea.
Orbán, who is considered the most pro-Russian leader in the European Union, said that it is not in the interests of the EU, including Hungary, to have “direct conflict with Russia” or “the threat of war”, and therefore Ukraine should not join NATO.
“Europe must be strengthened in the long term, and a strategic agreement with Russia must be reached,” Orbán said, adding that sanctions against Russia “are destroying Hungary and all of Europe”.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is also against sanctions and, after parliament adopted a resolution against new measures, recently announced that Slovakia would block any EU sanctions against Russia that would harm its national interests.
He said that Slovakia’s goal is to maintain a constructive position in the EU, calling the resolution a strong political message. Slovakia has not blocked any of the previous EU sanctions packages.
Under the leadership of their leaders, both Hungary and Slovakia have become the most Kremlin-friendly EU countries.
Budapest has also blocked progress in Ukraine’s EU negotiations and in recent weeks has signalled further obstacles after Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) announced that it had uncovered a Hungarian spy network in western Ukraine.
Orbán had called for a national referendum on Ukraine’s EU membership application, but it was criticised for low voter turnout and biased questions designed to sway voters against Ukraine’s EU membership.